Safety, Hygiene, Sanitation and First Aid
What the domain tests
This domain tests preventive safety, food hygiene and sanitation, and basic first aid that a hospitality worker may need before professional help arrives.
Core rules and concepts
- Fire triangle: heat, fuel, oxygen. Remove one side to extinguish. Use water on ordinary combustibles, foam on flammable liquids, CO₂ on electrical fires, and never water on oil or electrical fires. Know exits, alarms and assembly points.
- HACCP is a preventive food-safety system. Keep high-risk food out of the danger zone (5–60°C); cook, cool, chill and reheat correctly; separate raw and cooked food; clean and sanitise surfaces.
- Personal hygiene: handwashing, clean uniform, hair restraint, no jewellery, exclusion of staff with vomiting or diarrhoea.
- First aid: DRABC (Danger, Response, Airway, Breathing, Circulation). Adult CPR is commonly 30 compressions to 2 breaths. For choking, encourage coughing, then back blows and abdominal thrusts. For burns, cool with running water and do not apply ice or butter. Call 112 in India.
Worked example
A guest chokes at a buffet and cannot speak. The steward should check danger, ask 'Are you choking?', encourage coughing if the airway is partly open, and if the guest cannot breathe, give up to five back blows and five abdominal thrusts, alternating, while someone calls 112. The incident is recorded and the guest is advised to seek medical review. Reasoning: the priority is restoring breathing; blind finger sweeps and giving water can worsen obstruction.
Traps that cost marks
Do not put water on a chip-pan fire. Do not move a suspected spinal-injury casualty unless there is immediate danger. Do not assume food is safe because it looks and smells normal. Do not send a food handler with diarrhoea back to work early. Do not delay the emergency call to finish service.